Imagine cuttlefish or squid that is crispy on the outside (Hot Butter Cuttlefish), tossed with butter, spring onions and chilli for the extra punch of flavour.
No party in Sri Lanka is complete without hot butter as a starter to have it with a glass of whisky.
The origin of the dish is seriously unknown but if you didn’t know, Sri Lanka is very famous for its Chinese fried rice. Haven’t you tried my fried rice recipe? then you are missing out, click here to get my Chinese fried rice recipe that goes well with the hot butter cuttlefish. and guess what the Chinese fried rice is not even close to the fried rice you eat in china and hot butter cuttlefish is always a side with any Chinese fried rice. I will seriously need to find out the origin of this dish!!! It’s rather a mystery at this point.
We also have a vegetarian version of this with mushroom and call it hot butter mushroom. We get quite creative in Sri Lanka 
What other dishes can I have with hot butter cuttlefish?
Fried rice
Chilli chicken
Vegetable chop suey
Why does cuttlefish turn soggy?
Its an easy dish but so many people find it hard to nail it. There are a few reasons for it. there are a few reasons for it :
Normally this dish is made in a high heat wok.
Frying of the cuttlefish is done at a very high temperature.
The whole dish is tossed on the fire for a maximum of 2 minutes.
The cuttlefish is watery and wet
How do I get Crispy Hot butter cuttlefish?
So how do we avoid all of those mistakes?
We don’t have a wok at home with high heat, it’s ok not to have a wok, we can simply do it in a pan, but make sure u have a high heat when making this whole dish.
we don’t have a high-temperature fryer at home? When frying make sure your oil is extremely hot (200C).
and we normally take are own pace making this dish and most importantly we like to fiddle around the dish with a spoon when its meant to be a quick toss.
when doing the final tossing of the dish, do it on high heat as quickly as possible.
When you buy the cuttlefish from shops it will be very watery, always pat dry with a kitchen paper towel and leave it in the fridge without a cover overnight, just to dry the cuttlefish.
Well, if I may put it bluntly!!!
High heat + quickly = crispy hot butter cuttlefish and seriously stop poking the dish with your spoon, just leave it alone. Poking the dish and meddling around with it, will only make it soggy!!!
How to do hot butter mushroom?
Apply the same recipe and swap the cuttlefish into mushrooms, Usually the white oyster mushrooms are used in Sri Lanka for this recipe
You can also check my other Sri Lankan recipes and dinner recipes
Crispy Hot Butter Cuttlefish Recipe
Equipment
- Pots and pants
- Cook top
Ingredients
- 250 g Cuttlefish (Squid)
- ½ tsp Salt Table salt
- ¼ tsp Tumeric (Optional)
- 1 tsp Chilli powder
- 1 Capsicum Thinly sliced
- 2 Chilies Thinly sliced
- 2 Sprigs Spring onion Thinly sliced
- 1 Garlic Thinly sliced
- 1 tbsp Chili flakes (or chilli paste)
- 40 g Butter
- 100 g Cornflour (For coating)
Instructions
- Prepare the cuttlefish by scoring cris- cross patterns on the top of the cuttlefish and cut long stripes
- Marinade the cuttlefish with salt, turmeric, and chilli powder and leave aside for 10 minutes
- Heat a pot of oil on high heat
- Just before frying coat the marinated cuttlefish in cornflour well, until it's well coated
- Deep fry the cuttlefish in small batches (if the pan is overcrowded the cuttlefish will get soggy)
- Deep fry until golden brown and crispy and drain the oil on top of a paper towel
- Heat a separate pan with 2 Tbsp. of oil on high heat
- Once the oil is heated add capsicums, chillies, garlic and fry until its cooked
- Add in the butter & chili flakes
- Once the butter is melted, add the cuttlefish and spring onion, toss it quickly and take it off the fire
- Serve immediately
9 thoughts on “Crispy Hot Butter Cuttlefish In 15 Minutes”
Tried this recipe and it came out so well. Simple and easy to make. Thank you so much!
Thank you
Wow😲
It is amazing 🙂
Thank you very much for the recipe. I took chicken instead of cuttlefish for the same recipe and it was soo delicious. We really enjoyed it. ♥️
Ohhh Nice. Thank you 🙂
Thank you very much for your recipe. I had chicken instead of cuttlefish for the same recipe. It was soo delicious and we really enjoyed the dish. Thank you again ♥️
Ohh nice Thank you
First time trying cuttlefish, such a delicious recipe. I made this for family and everyone absolutely loved it 🙂